A letter home

"Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

"I want to share a story with you. It might take me a while to write it down, so please don´t write back before I end it. You will know when I end it because I have to ask a favor from you.

"Last week our mutal friends and I met at their favourite corner bistro. You may remember it from the time we prepared against the sirens. Applejack was complaining that day about business she had to participate in.

"I don´t know how Applejack acts in Equestria, but I assume she never tries to back away from reponsibility either. You see, she had lost her bass before the Dazzlings showed up. In order to get it back, she had to make a deal with, how she called them, "shady mountebanks". So she had to work off a dept put upon her shoulders. It seems that over time it has chiped away her pride and started to break her.

Don´t worry, she is fine. Apparently, the owner of the shop forced her to work as a mascot while wearing a giant banana-suit to attract customers for months. As Applejack kept complaining, she dropped the names of the owners of the shop.

"It was stupid, but as soon as I heard whom she was bitching about, we got caught up in argument. You see, I used to know them as ponies. I told her she is unfair against Flim and Flam. I learned long time ago that not all ponies i knew back in Equestria and their human counterpart are the same. Still, just to hear Applejack insulting them felt like she was attacking me personally.

"Even writing this is hard, but I owe them for where and, more importantly, who I am today. How was it for you, Twilight, the day you were choosen to become Princess Celestia's personal protege. It was overwhelming, was it not? Like climbing up the hill and felt proud to accomplished your goal just to be rewarded with a scary giant mountain in your face. At least that´s how I had felt. I was so discouraged by all the stuff I thought I would never be able to understand. Flim and Flam where always there for me.

"So I insisted that I could bail Applejack out because she was unable to negotiate on their terms. We went to the shop together, all of us. We stood in front of the entrance and the girls were staring at me as I started to doubt my decision. Applejack tried to calm me, saying that she just had to work a little while to pay her bass - that it was okay if I back off. I knew better; she had mentioned earlier that she had to work a full year for them. This would not be all. If these world's Flim and Flam are like the Equestria's, they would jump at any chance to make her work even longer.

"The reason was not that I did not feel confident to free her from the agreement, but rather I was scared how they would react if they see me for the very first time.

"There I was, standing between the girls whom thought I would already know the shop owner - at least one of them hoping for me to succeed - and the door that separated me from people that I used to know closer than Celestia. You know the tension, right, Twilight?
When you came here the first time and noticed your friends are living here as well, you must know the strange feeling that you should be connected but at the same time you are just a stranger. You didn't know what they had done to this point. You didn´t share any memories.

"I admit my hand was shaking as I reached to the handle of the door. Suddenly, the door was pulled from the inside. There he stood in front of me, tall, slender, and sporting a mustache. Flam. He looked at us and ask us to politely to move away from the door so customers could enter the 'Flim Flam Brothers Everything Under the Sun Emporium'.

"I had expected some sort of reaction to me. Angry, surprised, sad, confused, anything. But nothing. "Girl." He called me "girl" when he asked me directly to either come in or go with my friends.
"Twilight, it seems like I was never born in the human world. My big brothers did not recognize me. Sunset Shimmer has never existed. They never taught the young filly to see and embrace opportunities. I did so many stupid things because I have seen the opportunity to do so. The black magic archive, the mirror, stealing your crown...

"It´s not all bad. I got Applejack out of the jam by appealing to my brothers' attraction for business occasions. The Rainbooms are having their first concert next month. Flim and Flam were with open arms when I told them that Applejack was part of the band that won the battle of the bands at the Canterlot High. I explained them that they could let them preform in their shop on a weekend which would easily attract students of our high school- young customers that will tell their families about the shop (and of course would be willing to pay a small fee.) I also got a part-time job at the 'Flim Flam Brothers Everything Under the Sun Emporium'.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, would you be so kind if you ever meet two tall yellow unicorn stallions with red manes and white highlights that have apple cutiemarks that look like the same apple split 1/4 and 3/4... could you tell them, that I miss them, but I have found a opportunity I simply can´t slip by.

"Your friend Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset put the pen away but before she could close the book, more characters appeared under her text. Twilight read the message while she had written it.

"Dear Sunset Shimmer..."